^

9:50pm: Level 5 begins, blinds are 150/300 with a 25 ante

9:40pm: Lucky river sees Hsu double

Leon Hsu opened the action preflop with a raise to 450. The player to his direct left called before the next to act three-bet to 1,625.

Hsu came back over the top for 5,300 leaving himself 10,125 behind. The initial caller mucked his hand but the three bettor called as the two went to a flop of [8s][7c][9d].

It was then that Hsu moved all in to send his opponent into the tank. After studying Hsu, leaning back in his chair, checking the tournament clock and counting on his fingers, the player decided to call and put Hsu at risk.

Hsu: [ac][kh]
Opponent: [jc][jd]

Hsu needed an ace or king to remain in the tournament. He bricked the [4h] turn but spiked a king as the [ks] rolled off to keep his Red Dragon hopes alive.

Slamming the table and jumping from his seat, Hsu's opponent didn't like what he saw. Hsu collected the pot and is now well above average stack.

9:25pm: Luo takes one from MPC23 High Roller champ

James Chen had a great run here in Macau last year, finishing runner-up in February's Baby Dragon event before following that up with a victory in the September Macau Poker Cup 23 High Roller.

Tonight though it hasn't been all smooth sailing. Chen lost a recent pot to Xixiang Luo.

The hand went four-way to the [6c][js][qh] flop where after the players in the blinds checked, Chen bet 750. The button folded, Luo called from the small blind and the big blind folded before the dealer turned the [7c].

Luo checked again and Chen continued for 1,300. Raising his hand in the air Luo motioned to see Chen's chip stack. After assessing what he had behind, Luo called the bet.

The river went check-check and Luo showed [qs][th] which was enough to win the pot.

9:10pm: Level 4 begins, blinds are 100/200 with a 25 ante

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9:00pm: First break

The first break of the night has just commenced. Coverage will commence shortly.

8:50pm: Lo KOs Ho

We arrived at the table with the board reading [8d][7d][7h][jh] and Jason Lo had made a bet of 1,300 after opponent Collin Ho had checked to him. Ho wanted to play for more and reraised it to 3,850.

Lo eyed Ho's roughly 8,000 stack and made the call to see the [5h] river.

Ho shrugged and tossed the rest of his stack in but Lo almost beat him into the pot, slamming in a call and flipping [7s][7c] for quads. He chips up to 36,000 while Ho leaves us in here in Level 3.

8:35pm: Chan chips up with a jam

Justin Chan hasn't had a great start here but he's fighting back after winning a recent hand.

The action started with a raise from Kazuma Tanaka in early position, before Chi Han Hsien made the call from the hijack seat.

Next-to-act Justin Chan squeezed all in for 4,400 and it folded back around to Tanaka. He only took a moment to throw his cards into the muck, and when Hsien followed suit, Chan collected some much-needed chips.

8:20pm: Level 3 begins, blinds are 100/200

8:10pm: Heung hits the river

Raiden Kan, Chun Kong Ken Heung and Lante Zhang went to a flop of [9d][4h][9s] and all three checked their option. The [2h] turn prompted Kan to lead out from the small blind for 400 and he was called in two spots.

The [ac] river saw the three players check again and Kan tabled [6s][6h] optimistic that his pocket pair was good. Heung tabled [ad][qh], however, for a higher two pair and took down the pot after Zhang mucked.

Raiden Kan

7:55pm: Zhang flushes Patni

On a flop of [2c][5d][6d] Yong Zhang led for 350 and was called in two spots by Kunal Patni in the cutoff and Leonidas Alexopoulos on the button.

The turn brought the [qd] and Zhang bet again, this time for 650. Patni stuck around but Alexopoulos gave it up before the [3d] river appeared.

Zhang fired a third time for 1,150 and Patni didn't take long to call it off. Holding the ace-high flush with [ad][9d] Zhang had more than enough to claim the pot. Patni took a quick glance at his own cards before relinquishing the hand.

7:40pm: Level 2 begins, blinds are 50/100

7:30pm: Early hit to HotDog

Taiwanese rap artist MC HotDog is in the building but he recently sent a few chips over to tablemate Rong Xia.

HotDog raised to 125 from the cutoff before Xia next to act reraised to 350. HotDog called and players went to the [ts][7s][2d] flop.

The action went check-check and the dealer turned the [6c]. HotDog then led for 275 which was met with a call before the [8s] arrived on the river.

After a check from HotDog, Xia made a bet of 900. The rap star called it off but saw the bad news as Xia tabled [9c][9s] for a rivered straight.

7:15pm: A stellar line-up

Scanning the tournament floor it's become apparent that a whole host of notable names waited until the biggest opening flight of the week to make an appearance.

We have two Team PokerStars Pros in the building. Bryan Huang and Yaxi Zhu have registered and will be looking for a big score this week in Macau.

Joining them will be almost too many familiar faces to count. Sparrow Cheung, Kunal Patni, Iori Yogo, Thomas Ward, Raiden Kan, Aaron Lim, Raymond Wu, Takuya Yamashita, Jack Salter and even MC HotDog are in attendance.

It's a star-studded field already and we'll be on the lookout for anyone else we recognise.

7:00pm: Play is underway!

Just as Day 1a and Day 1b kicked off, things just began here with PokerStars LIVE Macau's Fred Leung taking to the microphone to welcome tonight's players and announce that it was time to get the cards in the air.

We're in for 12 40-minute levels here tonight. Including breaks that means things are set to wrap up around 3:30am.

Registration will be open until 11:20pm and with over 350 players already registered, and a line at the booth, we look well on track to eclipse the 1000 mark.

Players will start with 15,000 in chips and the blinds at 25/50.

It's go time!

MPC24 Red Dragon Day 1c ready to go

It's almost time for the Red Dragon's third and final opening flight!

Today is expected to be easily the biggest yet and with 563 combined entrants from Days 1a and 1b we'll be hoping the field can reach the 1000-player milestone.

Those taking their seats today will be chasing yesterday's chip leader Kamel Mokhammad. The Ukrainian set the pace last night bagging up 210,600.

Play kicks off at 7:00pm tonight and with the later start we'll be playing until the early hours of the morning. Stay tuned to the PokerStars Blog for everything you need to know from here in Macau!

All photos by Kenneth Lim Photography courtesy of PokerStars LIVE Macau

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